by Alexa Land
“Wow, your brother’s a douche.” Surprisingly, that had come from Vincent, and when I looked at him he said, “What? He is.”
“You’re not wrong,” I told him.
“Come into my fake living room,” Dante said. “Let’s have a seat and see what we can come up with for defusing this situation.”
I brought Luca a cup of coffee from the breakroom (because he looked like he desperately needed it) then sat beside him on the brown sofa while my cousins returned to the matching club chairs across from us. I held his hand while we all brainstormed ideas, even though the earlier awkwardness still lingered. It was as if we didn’t know where we stood with each other anymore.
After a while, Dante got to his feet. “Come on, Vinnie, let’s raid the showroom manager’s desk. She often has peanut butter cups in there. I think Luca and Nico need a few minutes to talk. Plus, I’m fucking starving.”
Vincent got up too, and both of them had just started to leave the model living room when movement to my left caught my eye. The entire west wall of the showroom was glass, and a large, white SUV was headed straight for it. I managed to yell, “Look out!” An instant later, the wall shattered, and all we could do was crouch down and shield ourselves with our arms. Fortunately it was made of safety glass, so we weren’t ripped to shreds as the pieces pelted us.
The car ground to a halt ten feet from us, and three of the doors were thrown open. Andreo and two huge men with permanent scowls burst out of the vehicle with guns drawn. Dante and Vincent had pulled their weapons, too. Vincent held one in each hand, aimed at the pair of thugs, who in turn pointed their weapons at my cousins. Meanwhile, Dante and Andreo’s guns were trained on each other. “Who are you?” Andreo demanded.
I answered for my cousins, trying to draw his focus away from them. “They’re no one, just a couple bodyguards I hired when I heard you were on your way here.”
Luca started to approach his brother, saying, “How the fuck did you find this building? I’m using a burner phone, no way could you trace it here!”
Andreo swung the gun around so it was pointed at me and told his brother, “That’s close enough. I don’t want you to get any stupid ideas about disarming me to save your boyfriend.”
Luca stepped between me and the gun and said, “Knock that shit off and answer me! How did you find me?” A thought occurred to him, and he ran the lapels of his wool overcoat between his fingers. He then reached under the right lapel and pulled out a small, metal object. It was covered in tiny barbs and looked a bit like a burr. “Really? You planted a bug on me? What the fuck is wrong with you, Andreo?”
“What’s wrong with me? You’re sitting here having a tea party with three fucking Dombrusos, and you ask what’s wrong with me?” He turned his gaze on me and said, “I know those two aren’t bodyguards. Nice try, though. I remember their faces from the files we have on your family, I just can’t remember which one’s Dante.”
“I am,” Vincent said, stepping forward.
“Stop that,” Dante said, pulling his brother back and narrowing his eyes as he stared Andreo down. His voice rang with authority as he said, “I’m Dante Dombruso, and in case you hadn’t noticed, you’re on my turf right now. If you decide to prove to your brother just how big a psychopath you really are by pulling that trigger, know this: you’ll never make it out of San Francisco alive. The entire Dombruso family will hunt you down like dogs, and believe me when I say, they’ll show no mercy for the son of Sal Natori. They won’t kill you quick, either. They’ll make sure you and your lap dogs suffer, not just for this, but for generations of Natoris being a thorn in our side.”
Andreo swung the gun around and took two steps forward, pointing it directly at Dante’s forehead. My cousin didn’t flinch and his gaze didn’t waver in the slightest. He just kept staring Natori down, totally unphased. Even through my panic, I had to admire what a total badass my cousin was.
“So, what did you think was going to happen?” Andreo asked with a grin. “You’d make a big speech and I’d quake in fear before turning and running?”
“What I was hoping would happen is that you’d realize you’re in a no-win situation,” Dante said. “You start firing, we do, too. You somehow make it out alive, my family hunts you down. Why don’t you save us the trouble of killing you and crawl back under your rock?”
I stepped forward so I was standing beside Luca and told Andreo, “I know you’re not this unreasonable. You’re worried about your brother, and right now you’re probably incredibly pissed off at him. But how is that worth getting yourself killed? You’re the only real family Luca has. What’s he going to do if you die here?”
“He’ll probably throw a party,” Andreo said with a frown. “Luca doesn’t get it. He never has. Everything I do, I do for him. His safety is all that matters to me, and as long as you’re in the picture, he’s going to be in the crosshairs of the Dombruso family. I can’t allow that. If he ends up hating me for doing what I have to do, so be it.”
He swung the gun back around and pointed it at my heart, and Luca yelled, “Fucking stop it, Andreo!”
Since Andreo and his men had their backs to what was left of the glass wall, they didn’t see the big, black Ford Bronco approaching. Dante’s store was wired with an alarm system, of course, which had been triggered when the first SUV smashed through the wall. But it didn’t call the police. It called the family.
The Bronco crashed through a portion of the wall that was still standing. Andreo flinched when the glass shattered behind him. And that made him pull the trigger. The gun was still pointed at my chest.
I felt like everything was happening in slow motion. Fear paralyzed me, coursing through my veins, my breath catching in my throat. Someone was yelling over the noise of the engine and the shattering glass, but it sounded like they were far away. The crack of the gun echoed in my ears, loudest of all. I waited for the impact of the bullet. To my left, Luca was in motion.
In the next second, everything sped up again. More people were yelling. Luca collapsed as his brother lowered the weapon, shock and disbelief on his face. Luca had put himself between the bullet and me. He’d saved my life.
I looked down at him. He was on the floor, his eyes wide. A dark, wet stain was blooming on his grey shirt. He was bleeding out.
One second after that, I was in motion. I’d been trained for this, I’d worked as an EMT. I dropped to my knees, ripped his shirt open, and assessed the entry wound as I tore my shirt off. Then I wadded it up and pressed it to the wound to try to slow the blood loss as I yelled, “Call nine-one-one! He doesn’t have much time!”
Vincent dropped both his weapons and pulled out his phone, and I glanced at my watch and tried to estimate how long the ambulance would take to arrive. As my cousin called for help, I leaned close to Luca and told him, “Don’t you die on me. Do you hear me? An ambulance will be here soon. I know it hurts but you have to stay with me. You have to. Do you hear me, Luca?” He gave a single nod, his wide, green eyes locked with mine as the color drained from his face.
Andreo had dropped to his knees, too. He looked stricken as he stammered, “Luca, I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. Why’d you do that? Why’d you get in the way of the bullet?”
“Because I love him.” His voice so thin.
“Oh God, Luca,” I whispered, and bent to kiss his forehead, never taking the pressure off his wound. With my other hand, I picked up his wrist to check his pulse. It was weak.
My cousin Jerry plucked the gun from Andreo’s hand and demanded, “What the fuck is going on here?” It took me a moment to register the fact that he’d arrived in the Bronco and brought some people with him, all of whom had guns trained on Andreo and his men.
Dante stepped forward. “This is Mike Mazetti,” he said, indicating Andreo. “I was working with him on a business deal, and we had a difference of opinion. Tempers flared, you know how it goes. I appreciate you coming to help, but Vincent and I can take it from here.”
Dante shrugged and said, “It doesn’t usually, but shit happens.”
After considering that for a long moment, Jerry handed Dante the gun he’d taken from Andreo and said, “Alright. So who’s the guy that got shot?”
“Luca Caruso, Nico’s boyfriend,” Dante said, sticking the gun in the back of his waistband.
I looked up at Jerry and said, “The ambulance is on its way. We need to clear a path for it.”
“You heard him,” Jerry yelled. “Get those vehicles out of the way!” His men rushed to comply, and Andreo handed one of his people the keys to the white SUV. Glass crunched under their tires as the big vehicles were backed out into the street.
The ambulance pulled up a minute later, sirens blaring. A man and woman in uniform hurried into the building carrying a large crash kit. Andreo got out of the way, and I kept pressure on the wound as I glanced at my watch and told them, “Single GSW to the chest, six minutes ago. Significant blood loss, pulse dropping. It missed the heart and lungs, not sure if the bullet exited the body.”
It tore my heart out to have to step back and let them take over, but they had all the equipment, not me. In just a couple minutes they had him as stable as possible, and transferred him to the gurney that the ambulance driver had wheeled out. “There’s room for one of you to ride along to the hospital,” the female EMT told us.
Andreo and I looked at each other, and he said, “You go ahead. He’s going to want to know you’re there, not me. I’ll follow in my rental.” I nodded and climbed aboard the ambulance.
Luca was swimming in and out of consciousness when I sat down beside him and picked up his hand. He blinked at me over the oxygen mask that covered his nose and mouth, and I told him, borrowing the nickname, “It’s going to be okay, mio tesoro. You’re in good hands.” He couldn’t reply, but kept his eyes locked with mine until he finally passed out from the blood loss.
Only when he was no longer looking at me did I press my eyes shut and let my fear and worry show. “Please don’t die,” I whispered. “This can’t be how our story ends.” I kept my finger on his pulse as I held his hand. It was so faint. I thanked God for every beat, no matter how weak, and prayed for them to continue.
They wheeled him straight to surgery when we arrived at the hospital. I stood in the long hallway staring after him, feeling so lost. The fluorescent lights made everything look so cold and unnatural, like a dreamscape I wished I could wake up from.
I jumped when someone touched my arm, and turned to look at my cousin Vincent. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you cleaned up.” When I looked down at myself, I realized I was shirtless, and that my hands were covered in blood.
I let him lead me to the men’s room, and washed my hands thoroughly. He handed me a dark grey t-shirt and said, “This was in my gym bag in the car. It’s clean, though.” I thanked him and pulled on the t-shirt, which turned out to have a big Superman logo on the chest. “My son got it for me,” he explained.
When I was cleaned up, we went into the waiting room and sat beside Dante. We were joined a few moments later by Andreo. He perched on the very edge of a chair across from ours, his forehead creased with concern and strain showing around his hazel eyes. After a while, he asked, “Why did you lie to your cousin about who I am?”
“He doesn’t need to know the truth,” Dante told him. “It would just stir up trouble.”
“Thank you.”
“Speaking of trouble, the police will be here any minute. It’s standard procedure for the hospital to phone them when a gunshot victim is brought in. We need to get our story straight. We can go with the whole ‘you were showing us the gun when it accidentally went off’ excuse. The cops hear that all the time, but sometimes it’s actually true. I assume it wasn’t properly registered, right?” Dante asked, and Andreo nodded.
“I had a colleague leave it and the car at the airport for me. I have no idea about its history,” Andreo said.
I didn’t notice that Dante had a backpack with him until he pulled it out from under his chair and unzipped it to reveal a gun case. “This is the same make as the gun you used and it’s registered in my name. We’ll dispose of the other one just in case it’s linked to other crimes. I discharged one bullet from this before I followed the ambulance to the hospital. They don’t run forensics in a case like this, so they won’t realize the bullet wasn’t from this gun. You should be fine.” He slid the backpack across the floor, and it stopped beside Andreo.
“I can’t believe you’re doing so much for your enemy,” Andreo said. “What’s the catch?”
“No catch, and you’re not my enemy. Your father was, but not you.”
Luca’s brother looked at the linoleum and said, “I never expected kindness from a Dombruso.”
“You heard your brother. He loves my cousin, and for their sake, we need to let this feud between the families die out. It’s been going on far too long anyway. I bet no one even remembers what started it,” Dante said.
Andreo smiled humorlessly and told him, “It was over two cases of wine.”
Vincent raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“In the early eighteen-hundreds, my great-great-great grandfather, Vido Natori and yours, Mauritzio Dombruso, were the best of friends and heads of their respective clans. I’m probably leaving out about a few greats there, but you get the idea.” Andreo sat back in his seat and continued, “Both of our families were heavily involved in organized crime, as I’m sure you know, but they were allies all the way. The families had divided up Viladembursa and the surrounding territory years before. No one dared horn in on their claim, because the two families united were the strongest force in the region.
“The way I heard it, one day a wine delivery to Mauritzio’s grandmother’s restaurant came up short, and he accused Vido of skimming off the top since he was overseeing the delivery. This outraged my ancestor. A lot of harsh words were exchanged, and the two went from best friends to bitter enemies, just like that. Soon the families began to fight for control of Viladembursa. It all spiraled out of control from there. I don’t know how many lives have been lost along the way, but I’m sure it’s well into the double digits on both sides.”
Vincent shook his head. “It’s all so pointless.”
“Most feuds are,” Andreo said. He turned his head and stared off in the direction they’d taken his brother.
We were soon joined by a police officer, who looked skeptical as she took Andreo’s and Dante’s statements about the gun accidentally going off. She inspected the weapon and its registration card, and took it into evidence. She then wrote some information on a little notepad, including everyone’s name, address and phone number, and said she’d be in touch. When she left, Dante said, “It’ll be fine. All our stories will be the same, including Luca’s when he’s strong enough to talk to the police.”
“Where’d your men go?” I asked Andreo idly. I’d only been partly paying attention to what was happening in the waiting room. Most of me was focused on an operating room somewhere deep inside the building.
“I sent them to find a hotel. They’re not needed here,” he said.
Dante checked his phone, and Vincent asked him, “Did the work crew show up?”
His brother nodded. “The wall to the furniture store is being replaced as we speak. I’m glad I don’t have to be the one to clean up all that glass.”
I listened to my cousins chatting for a while, trying to let it distract me from worrying about Luca, but it didn’t help. I kept picturing his face right after he was shot, the color draining from it, his eyes wide with shock. And I kept hearing his voice as he said, “Because I love him.” I wrapped my arms around myself and pressed my eyes shut.
I shouldn’t have been surprised by those words. He’d already shown me he loved me b
y not giving up on us, even when I refused to answer his texts, and by flying halfway around the world just so he could talk to me. But to hear him say it, right after he’d actually taken a bullet for me, took my breath away.
It just killed me that he didn’t know it was mutual. I’d fallen in love with him back in Malta, but I’d barely admitted it to myself, let alone him. I’d tried to protect myself from heartache. I didn’t tell him how I felt because I was terrified of getting hurt again.
And now he was in an operating room, bleeding, possibly dying, and it was all because of me. Why the hell couldn’t I just have answered his texts? Why did I have to make him suffer for not telling me about his father, especially since, once the initial shock wore off, I understood why he kept that information to himself? I doubled over, head to my knees, my arms still wrapped around myself, and started to cry. He couldn’t die. He just couldn’t.
Once the tears started, it was hard to stop them. My body shook from the silent sobs. It was several minutes before I realized someone was sitting right beside me, comforting me by rubbing my back. When I finally got myself under control, I sniffed and sat up, then turned to the person beside me. I’d expected it to be one of my cousins, and was startled when it proved to be Andreo, his hazel eyes full of pain.
“You’re being awfully nice to me, considering you were prepared to shoot me less than an hour ago,” I managed.
“I wasn’t going to shoot you. I was just going to threaten you so my stubborn brother would get on a plane with me and come home. I never intended for anyone to get hurt.”
“If you don’t want anyone to get hurt, maybe don’t point loaded guns at people,” I said as I pulled off my glasses and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand.
“I know I made a huge mistake. Several, actually. I’m so fucking sorry,” he said. “I had no idea. I thought the thing between you and Luca was just some fling. I was even arrogant enough to believe my brother insisted on seeing you just to spite me. I didn’t know you two are in love. If I’d had any idea what you meant to each other, I would have handled this differently.”